Sandra Mercado rooted from the bench for Notre Dame to break Marymount’s recent momentum of and improve her team’s postseason prospects Thursday.

Little did she know she would be the one to fulfill that vision for Notre Dame, which recorded a 7-6 Mission League road victory, its second win of the season against the Sailors.

With the score tied 6, Mercado quickly switched to defense following a blocked shot attempt by Notre Dame.

After a bad pass between the Sailors’ goalkeeper and teammate Marissa Peterson, Mercado came up with the ball and fired a close shot into the net, giving the Knights (11-5, 2-1) the lead.

“It was a close game and we tried hard because we knew they were going to come in pumped,” Mercado said. “When I made the last goal, it was really intense and we knew that we had to push our hardest at that last second because we knew it was going to be a really close game This is definitely one chance that I won’t forget.”

Michelle Mercado and Joni Anderson combined for four goals in the first half to give the Knights a 4-2 lead.

But in the second half, Marymount (5-6, 2-2) – which suffered a 9-6 loss Dec. 9 to Notre Dame at the Burbank Tournament – stepped up its defense and Emily Sims received her third ejection just 20 seconds into the third quarter.

Sims’ absence gave the Sailors the chance to score two unanswered goals at the end of the quarter.

Although the Knights were playing against a one-man offense in Marymount’s Lisa Royere, Martine McCarthy pulled through for the Sailors to tie it up with 2:20 left. Less than a minute later, Mercado, who came in for the ejected Sims, answered back.

“I felt relief. We dodged a bullet a little bit,” Notre Dame coach John Hirn said. “Sandra went in for us and she’s a sophomore so experience-wise she’s a little bit less than Emily. Size-wise she’s about four or five inches shorter and not nearly as long, but she did a good job. She scored the game-winner. Kids have to do what their supposed to do in order to win a game.”